


Scorch Marks

by SassySnowperson



Series: Rise of Skywalker Ficlets [2]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Force Ghost Luke Skywalker, Grief/Mourning, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-18 07:31:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21990523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassySnowperson/pseuds/SassySnowperson
Summary: Written for a ficlet feston Tumblr.The prompt:Wedge/Luke - Wedge has feelings about seeing Luke’s X-Wing again (+ force ghost if you want to).
Relationships: Wedge Antilles/Luke Skywalker
Series: Rise of Skywalker Ficlets [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1582255
Comments: 16
Kudos: 58





	Scorch Marks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yunmin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yunmin/gifts).



> Written for a ficlet fest [on Tumblr.](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/sassysnowperson)
> 
> The prompt:  
>  _Wedge/Luke - Wedge has feelings about seeing Luke’s X-Wing again (+ force ghost if you want to)_  
> .

"Red Five is in the air!" a voice shouted, triumphantly, and for a moment Wedge thought something had hit his X-Wing. 

But no, that was his own jolt, his own hands twitching out of control. Rookie mistake. He was rusty.

Kriff, what was he doing here? 

He reached for his old war-calm, and found it, lining up a shot on a passing TIE, before falling in with a light frigate to keep the fire off of them. But with that instinct came another, and he couldn't help but scan the battlefield, looking for the X-Wing that should be on his six. 

It wasn't Luke, it wouldn't be Luke, Luke was gone. 

_But so was his X-Wing_. 

Wedge grit his teeth and forced his focus back to the battle.

~

There was a celebration in a forest, in the firelight, and a girl bearing her own version of Luke's joyous shadow stepped out of Red Five. She ran off, leaving her ship behind to wrap up her friends in a hug. 

Which was how it should be. Wedge already had his moment in the forest, in the firelight. He didn't need another. It was good to see them celebrate. He'd keep his mourning quiet. 

Wedge walked over to the ship. He knew her, nearly as well as he knew his own girl. Knew the scarring, could tell the stories of most of those marks. He reached up and laid his hand against a ding, along the starboard S-foil, picked up when an asteroid-dwelling space-worm had decided Luke's X-Wing would make a tasty snack. Its skin was resistant to turbolaser fire, and Wedge had eventually needed to figure out where its eyes were to get Luke free again. 

One story amidst many. A whole history in scorch marks. 

Wedge sighed, and tucked his hands in his pockets. A quick, furious well of sorrow threatened to break out in a sob, and Wedge blinked away the tears that were forming. 

If only he had stayed with Luke. Maybe things would have…

No point in thinking that way. 

"Now this seems familiar," Luke said, quite literally materializing by Wedge's elbow. "I seem to remember you looked happier the last time, though." 

Wedge froze. There was an old spacer's tale that said that staring at the stars of hyperspace too long would make you start hallucinating. Wedge had never placed much stock in that. Before. He stared at the faintly-blue shape of the man next to him. He was young. The same age they had been when Luke had pressed Wedge up against a tree in the forests of Endor and kissed him. 

"You're dead," Wedge said, feeling every one of the years between the boy he had been and the man he was now. 

Luke gave a tight smile, his eyes growing wrinkles at the corners, his hair darkening. He looked more like the man Wedge had known after the war, the one who had tried to balance loving Wedge and being a Jedi. "In a matter of speaking. Yes. In another sense..." Luke put his hand on Wedge's arm, and he was warm and solid. "No. Walk with me?" Luke tugged Wedge's arm. 

Wedge followed the ghost of his dead friend and lover into the forest, and thought to himself that if he were in a wonder-tale, this would be about when his soul got eaten. 

But Luke didn't seem particularly hungry for souls, he just lead them around a few trees until they weren't in anybody's eyesight, then reached up his hands, and brushed the tears off of Wedge's cheeks. "I'm sorry," Luke said softly. "I shouldn't have left, and I shouldn't have stayed away." 

Wedge blinked, looking at Luke's solemn face. Luke was older, now, an age to match Wedge's own. He had never seen Luke like this—his white hair going wild, his… "That beard is hideous." 

Luke laughed, and Wedge knew that sound in his bones. "Really? Heartfelt apology and that's all you have to say?" 

Wedge, hesitantly, reached out a hand. The beard vanished as Luke shifted younger again, now the age of the man who had cried and held Wedge and agreed that they were both keeping each other from the future they wanted. Luke, sniffling, said wholeheartedly that of course Wedge deserved some quiet in his life, and of course they would stay friends. 

Wedge's fingers spasmed, stopping just shy of Luke's cheek. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I shouldn't have left. If I had stayed…"

"Maybe things would have changed." Luke reached up and took Wedge's hand, bringing it the rest of the way to Luke's cheek. It felt like right. If Wedge closed his eyes…

Wedge kept his eyes open. "I could have—"

"Or maybe Ben would have killed you too," Luke continued, implacable. He glanced back in the direction of the noise. "We don't know what might have been. But what is, now? This is good." 

"Could be better," Wedge said, bringing his other hand up to frame Luke's face, which had shifted again, older again than Wedge had ever known him, no beard this time. Wedge should probably be put off by the changes, but Luke had always felt like quicksilver between his palms. It seemed appropriate. "You could be here." 

"I am here," Luke said. 

Wedge smiled at Luke, feeling like the years slipping off his own face, too. "Then why are we still talking?" 

Luke laughed, bright and perfect, and leaned in.


End file.
